Godmother Read Free

humans. “Look.”
    “What?”
    “Rain. The sky's gone dark.”
    “Oh,” Maybeth said, flipping herself into the air. “I guess you'll just have to stay with me, then.”
    I clutched the wooden pier and pulled myself onto it. “I have work to do,” I said. “Plus what's a little rain?”
    “Do it later!”
    “I can't do it later!” I laughed at her, flicking my hand and spraying her with water. A scented breeze whispered through the trees that lined the lake, rippling through the leaves. The water shone in the light, and the rocks and pebbles gleamed like gems. On the bank, two human men lay sleeping, enchanted. A few fairies stood around them, poking at their armor.
    She flicked a few droplets back at me. “But I hate it there,” she said. “Hate it hate it hate it.”
    “You don't have to come.”
    “Oh, fine,” she said. “Just leave me all alone.”
    “Leave who all alone?”
    I turned and our friend Gladys was hovering behind us, her wings shimmering out behind her, fluttering like a hummingbird's.
    “Lil's going into the human kingdom today,” Maybeth said, folding her arms.
    “Oh, really? How fun! Let's go turn a lady into a frog!”
    “Gladys,” I said, “this is important.”
    “How important can it be?” Maybeth said. “Kings, queens, they all get old and die, anyway.”
    “We need to make this girl a queen before she can die as one,” I said. “I told you what the elders said.”
    “I think it sounds marvelous,” Gladys said. She caughtsight of herself in the surface of the water and peered in, moving her face back and forth. “I hear she cries all day long every day. Poor girl.”
    “They say she is the most beautiful girl in the land,” I said. “With hair like starlight.”
    Maybeth made a great show of stretching up her arms and yawning as wide as she could.
    “I'm sure she is simply dazzling,” Gladys said. “But can she do this?” She flipped her body over and balanced herself on the water with one finger. Her wings pulled her up into the air behind her. “And won't she turn old in seconds, practically?”
    “Get old and die, you mean,” Maybeth said.
    “I think you're just jealous,” I said.
    “Of a human?”
    “No,” I said. “Of me.”
    Right then Lucibell emerged from the water and threw her arms around Maybeth, knocking her over and into the lake. They were both laughing so loudly I covered my ears.
    “What are you thinking about?” Gladys asked in her soft voice, almost a whisper. Suddenly she was right next to me, leaning into me.
    “The work I have to do,” I said.
    “I did like Cinderella's mother.”
    “Me too.”
    “I was sorry when she died. I saw it written in the leaves and I wished I could change it.”
    “Don't say that,” I whispered.
    “It was just a thought, that's all.”
    I looked back at the other world, their world. The dark sky in the distance, curling in on itself, the light shootingdown through it. It was our job to make sure that everything happened as it was supposed to happen, the way it was written in the branches and vines of the great tree, the way the elders interpreted. When necessary, the young fairies, like me, who still left the water, helped humans meet the fates the elders decreed. We were inextricably bound to humans, no matter what we thought of them.
    “Lil thinks I'm jealous of Cinderella,” Maybeth said.
    “Well, I am,” Lucibell said. “I'm going to change my hair into pearls. Then the prince will marry me instead of her! What will you do then, Lil?”
    “Ha,” Maybeth said. “You won't be able to compete with my golden breasts!”
    “Lucibell! May!” I said.
    “You should not even kid about that,” Gladys said, gasping exaggeratedly.
    “Thank you,” I said.
    Gladys left my side and spread her crazy butterfly wings with the bright blue markings on the sides. “Because we all know that no human can resist these lustrous wings coupled with my violet eyes. What do I need with gold or